Why God • Part 4

How can we be expected to believe in a just and good God when there often seems to be little justice or goodness in the world He created? More people have stepped away from God because of their inability to reconcile a good and loving God with the injustice, pain, and suffering in the world around us. There is no rational argument against the existence of God based on the injustice we see in the world. Christians have never made an argument for God’s existence based on a world where bad things never happen to good people. Injustice in the world calls into question the justice of God, the goodness of God, the love of God, not the existence of God. Injustice does not prove whether or not God exists.

1. What was your biggest takeaway from the message this weekend?

2. When you look at the world around you and see injustice, pain and hurt, do you struggle reconciling what you see with your belief that God is good? Why or why not?

3. How do you answer the question: “If God is good, then why doesn’t He rid the world of injustice?”

4. When you think about your concept of what is just and unjust, where do your values come from? What framed your understanding of these concepts? (Family, friends, religion, etc.)

5. Why does the injustice you see around you call into question the moral character of God, but not the existence of God?

6. What is so radical about John 3:16-18? How do these verses show us that God is both just and good?

7. When Pastor James said that justice requires judgement, what did he mean by that? How does John 3:18 illustrate this?

8. How are you continuing to #WorkYourCircle to invite people to one of our Christmas Eve services? Who have you invited so far? Spend some time praying for the people your group has invited that they would attend one of our Christmas Eve services.